D&D 5E Build a Better Psion (Poll)

[Giltonio_Santos]

The beyondness property is weird to me. Why not just make them ranged attacks and save on complexity level?

Yeah, I agree it's weird. My intention was to emulate the "thrown" property, so wisdom-based mystics would have a ranged option. It could be easily replaced by a property that just allows a ranged combat mode to be used with wisdom, no questions asked.

Psionic Combat Style: Soulseeker
Because you're requiring the 'Cunning' property, only Ego Whip qualifies. Was that intended?

Ego Whip is the rapier of psionic combat modes!

At a given point I thought about trying to cover as many properties as possible in as many damage types, dices, and ranges, but I don't know if that would be worth the effort.

I don't know that I'd call it "Soul Knives" given that you don't manifest any "mind blades" people will riot

I like to imagine that a readied psionic combat mode manifests with a visual display that could be a mind blade, especially for modes usable only in melee. The Soul Knife would draw his psicrystal and the ego whip would appear to sprout out of it. Our budget for visual effects couldn't afford it, though... xD

I'm unclear on the example under Power Points. can you only upcast if you have spells of that level on the main chart or it is tied only to power points available? I.e. can a 3rd level Mind Witch use 3 power points to cast healing word as a 2nd level spell?

I actually like the idea of mystics being able to upcast, but that's not the original intention. I'll try to word it in a way that you can only create a slot up to your max spell level.

Spell list - I haven't gone through this with a fine toothed comb, but these are my first thoughts (...)

I decided to make the list about protection and support, instead of including every spell that was fit for the theme. For example, ray of frost and shocking grasp made the cut because of their ability to slow/detain enemies, while firebolt should be worse than using an attack mode in most situations. I did leave behind some great options, like warding bond and enhance ability. I'll include them, for sure!

I'm with @Undrave here, nicely done!

Thanks! And thanks for taking the time to review it. I guess it's worth to keep working on the concept, after all.

 

[Arnwolf666]

I can’t get into warlock as a template for psion because I think eldritch blast even reskinned ruins their role in a group and just makes them another dpr class.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Well, I decided to do it as a proof of concept. It took me a few more hours than I intended to spend but I think it's playable, even if the initial intention was mainly humorous. It was enjoyable as an exercise on how to make good use of the homebrewery, so I don't feel so bad for the time spent on the endeavor.

I tried to remain as close as possible to the PHB fighter but, somewhere along the way, I decided that changing some stuff to make it look more like a genuine mystic was worth the additional tinkering.

Some lessons learned: (1) Creating a class that mixes the flavor of spellcasting with the simple gameplay of the fighter is totally feasible using the 5e rules. (2) This is something I already believed, but now I'm pretty sure that the various tropes associated with psionics build up quickly and are worthy of being presented as a distinct class. (3) Last but not least: just because you can, it didn't mean you should...

Link to the Mystic with a Fighter Chassis.

Great work with Homebrewery! I love the site and use it for all my work.

Quick question though, what are your Mystics attacking? Do they use the crystals to make physical manifestations of their mental attacks?

I've been working on my own version and running into the problem of attacking. AC scales but for resisting a mental attack, AC doesn't work. Saves work, but most creatures and PCs saves are worse than AC, making Psions/Mystics/etc. too goo.

The only thing I can think of is to use saves but decrease the damage done to balance things out.

 

[GreyLord]

I think you should have included the option of NONE OF THE ABOVE. Make it it's own unique class with it's own mechanics and techniques.

 

[Arnwolf666]

I think you should have included the option of NONE OF THE ABOVE. Make it it's own unique class with it's own mechanics and techniques.

that’s really a good idea. A possible variant human.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Well, I decided to do it as a proof of concept. It took me a few more hours than I intended to spend but I think it's playable, even if the initial intention was mainly humorous. It was enjoyable as an exercise on how to make good use of the homebrewery, so I don't feel so bad for the time spent on the endeavor.

I tried to remain as close as possible to the PHB fighter but, somewhere along the way, I decided that changing some stuff to make it look more like a genuine mystic was worth the additional tinkering.

Some lessons learned: (1) Creating a class that mixes the flavor of spellcasting with the simple gameplay of the fighter is totally feasible using the 5e rules. (2) This is something I already believed, but now I'm pretty sure that the various tropes associated with psionics build up quickly and are worthy of being presented as a distinct class. (3) Last but not least: just because you can, it didn't mean you should...

Link to the Mystic with a Fighter Chassis.

This is strangely elegant as a solution! I would probably streamline a little the different ''weapon'' are their properties, but I love it.

 

[Undrave]

I can’t get into warlock as a template for psion because I think eldritch blast even reskinned ruins their role in a group and just makes them another dpr class.

That's not what we mean. We mean a short rest caster with modular components like Eldritch Invocation and Pact Magic. It would have a different loadout of spells.

 

[Leatherhead]

That's not what we mean. We mean a short rest caster with modular components like Eldritch Invocation and Pact Magic. It would have a different loadout of spells.

To be fair, we could just take Invocations and slap them on any chassis, like how they became Infusions for the Artificer (who uses the Half-caster chassis, plus cantrips).

 

[Ashrym]

I played 4e exactly 1 time and then got as far from it as I could, so dunno.

I was thinking more in terms of using any spell they know and metamagic to flex them around, but sure?

4e's system gave extra at-will powers and augmented them with power points. That would work well in 5e.

But you recall that the 4e psion didn't exactly fit the AEDU like the other classes did, right? You have a base power, then you use power points to enhance effects. In a 5e version, the options you get for the effects could scale up across 20 levels and branch out into different things, giving you just as much power or versatility as any other caster. A simple telekinetic mage hand discipline could turn into a force field, a huge grappling hand, a force wave, a gravity well, or whatever, based on what sciences you choose and how many PP you expend. The idea is to take the 4e concept of base at-will + augments and develope evolving lines of powers that escalate the way spell levels do.

It was still AEDU. They had more at-will and hardly any encounter but there were powers in each category.

 

[NaturalZero]

It was still AEDU. They had more at-will and hardly any encounter but there were powers in each category.

Sure, but the whole thing that set them apart from everything else in pre-essentials 4e was that their core attack powers weren't encounter powers at all. That's really why they're being looking at in this context with power points in the first place.